City signs deals with two Willets Points land owners

The city Economic Development Corp. has signed its first agreements to acquire property from landowners in the gritty Willets Point section of Queens, it announced today in a statement.

The two property owners who agreed to sell their property in the so-called “Iron Triangle” were Sambucci Bros Inc. Auto Salvage, with 52,000 square feet, and BRD Corp., with 22,000 square feet.

The news comes a week after several unions agreed to support the Bloomberg administration’s $3 billion plan to redevelop the 62-acre site because the project will create union jobs.

The city has been battling community groups and legislators over a massive mixed-use redevelopment planned for the area next to the new Mets stadium. The public review process has begun, and Community Board 7 in Queens will hold a public meeting tonight

The remaining landowners remained defiant, said Daniel Feinstein, president of Feinstein Iron Works and a member of the Willets Point Industry and Realty Association, which is fighting the mayor’s proposal. He called the announcement that two out of 260 businesses would sell their property was a sign of desperation.

“We believe the people have had enough of the administration’s attempts to bully” the property owners, he said.

In April, the association and 10 large property owners announced they were suing the city, which they claimed “has been waging a campaign of intentional neglect to create and perpetuate an eyesore for the eventual justification of the use of eminent domain.”